Who are they?

Thursday

Aug 30, 2007 at 5:00 AM

Twenty-four candidates would like you to send them to City Hall

Compiled by Scott Zoback

Worcester elections aren&#39;t supposed to go down like this.

There aren&#39;t supposed to be 24 candidates knocking on doors, standing in the middle of Kelley Square, and throwing ads on local radio and Channel 3 this early in the year. Hell, there aren&#39;t supposed to be this many candidates, period.

No, the usual Wo-paradigm would be that sometime after Labor Day, 7 or 8 At-Large candidates and another 8 or so District candidates &mdash; most of them incumbents &mdash; would smile for the cameras, ask for your vote, knock on a few doors, and call it a day. The &quot;usual&quot; is a clear stratification of the candidates, quickly: You know who will make it, who has a chance, and who is just running to &quot;change the conversation,&quot; as also-rans like to put it.

Not this year. With 18 At-Large candidates and two sets of 3 candidates in District races (Districts 1 and 5) jockeying for the opportunity to actually make it past Sept. 11 to the general election in November, 2007 has a different feel.

It&#39;s that At-Large race that&#39;s going to generate the most Primary Day drama.

To start, the numbers: If 13,000 people vote, that&#39;s one At-Large candidate for every 722 voters. That huge pool of candidates is making it tough for the pundit crowd to predict who is going to make it past the first round. Conventional wisdom is that three or four candidates are certain to be eliminated; there are seven or so who are guaranteed to make it through.

But it&#39;s those other 6 to 8 fighting for the remaining spots who are intriguing.

Throwing more dirt in the muddy waters are the unpopular stances, such as the Section 18 Medicare shift and the pay raise that some candidates - namely some of the incumbents &mdash; have taken. They are the kinds of issues that polarize some voters and send them looking for someone new.

Let&#39;s view that 722 number another way: If 13,000 people vote, the average total per At-Large candidate will be 722 votes. Even if 3 or 4 candidates run away with votes; even if 2 or 3 get 200 votes; the average margin of victory for that middle group won&#39;t be much.

In essence, the Primary Day results could come down to a matter of hundreds of votes between top and bottom. And with the vote so close, we&#39;re almost guaranteed to see 1 or 2 surprises on Primary Day &mdash; at least a couple of candidates who are expecting (and expected) to breeze through to November could be caught on the wrong side of that line. Just look at Dennis Irish in the 2005 general election: it was slightly more than 600 votes that cost him his spot, before landing a seat back on the Council after former Mayor Timothy Murray became lieutenant governor earlier this year.

The District races are nearly as tough to call: District 1 has become a heated battle, with incumbent Joff Smith and challenger Samuel Rosario battling it out in the press back and forth, while challenger Joseph Casello holds his own course. District 5 has been quieter, at least in the media, but is an interesting case in and of itself with three new candidates (Richard Ball, William Eddy and Nicholas Plante) battling it out for the seat vacated when current District Councilor Frederick Rushton decided to run for mayor.

In the end, while many candidates are predicting that the race will come down to &quot;who knocks on the most doors&quot; (another favorite campaign trail activity), the truth is that this preliminary has few certainties: No one is 100% safe, no one is 100% guaranteed to lose.

And it&#39;s only the preliminary.

Candidates

Every candidate appearing on the preliminary election ballot on Sept. 11 was asked the same three questions:

1. What three concrete things can be done to close the budget gap now and in the future?

2. What is the biggest non-financial goal/challenge facing the city?

3. Name three places you bring out-of-town friends who have never been to Worcester.

At-Large

ALLISON ALAIMO

Question 1

1. &quot;Look at some of the properties we have [that are in debt]. Certainly I&#39;m not suggesting the city should give up all its assets, but [we need to determine] should the city be in that business.&quot;

2. The city should take a better look at PILOT, although, &quot;no one has an implementation plan.&quot; Alaimo allows that some consideration should be given to what colleges are doing already in terms of economic development.

3. &quot;Focus on the properties that have been vacant or abandoned, get them back on the tax rolls, generating productive tax dollars.&quot;

Question 2

&quot;Maintain some of our core services,&quot; says Alaimo, citing partnerships such as Sheriff Guy Glodis&#39;s community service program as a key vehicle for saving money.

Question 3

&quot;I take everyone to Ralph&#39;s,&quot; says Alaimo, also naming The Sole Proprietor, and cultural institutions like the Worcester Art Museum.

MO BERGMAN

Question 1

1. &quot;Get serious about PILOT,&quot; says Bergman, who suggests forming a local committee and asking the Legislature to get involved. &quot;Attack the problem on both fronts, I&#39;m confident we&#39;ll get some dollars.&quot;

2. Bergman also calls for getting &quot;creative on revenue,&quot; including leasing out vacant space without selling it, looking at services we can sell to other cities and towns, and getting &quot;more pragmatic about selling parking downtown.&quot;

3. Selling or leasing assets is the third aspect, says Bergman. &quot;Look at what should be sold,&quot; says Bergman.

Question 2

&quot;Restore the average person&#39;s confidence in the way city government works. Part of that is having people who are proud to live in the city.&quot;

1. Callahan calls for an increase in revenues, including a gas tax to improve hybrid car use.

2. A hiring freeze (&quot;But I oppose layoffs&quot;).

3. Increased economic development that simultaneously promotes the environment.

Question 2

&quot;A commitment to environmental protection.&quot;

Question 3

A football game at Fitton Field at the College of the Holy Cross, Worcester Art Museum, and Foley Stadium.

WILLIAM COLEMAN III

Question 1

1. &quot;A summit with our legislators &mdash; the Legislature has to come and say &quot;here&#39;s how we&#39;re going to help Worcester.&quot;

2. Coleman calls for a citywide flat tax by 2010

3. He says that he would support a 1.5% statewide sales tax increase as a &quot;drastic measure,&quot; with that money going to cities and towns. &quot;There is money out there that we have not been creative enough to go after,&quot; says Coleman.

Question 2

&quot;Marketing Worcester to attract manufacturing jobs. We need people to take home a paycheck. We need to really resell Worcester as a manufacturing haven and have some incentives to put manufacturing jobs in.&quot;

Question 3

Coleman says his three places are the library, &quot;except on Monday, when it&#39;s closed,&quot; Water Street and The Pickle Barrel. &quot;Everyone&#39;s there,&quot; says Coleman. &quot;On one side the cops, the other the judges and the other people who interact with them.&quot;

MARITZA CRUZ

Question 1

1. &quot;We need to support our small business sectors in the city and encourage and aggressively pursue bringing in more businesses into the city.&quot;

2. &quot;Start thinking long-term, what&#39;s good for the whole city,&quot; says Cruz, adding it&#39;s not just about individual parts.

3. &quot;We need to prioritize those [services] that are important for the city as a whole.&quot;

Question 2

&quot;I believe the city has to be inclusive of all its neighborhoods and all its citizens. People are what make a city or a town. When you have that, you have people who feel like they&#39;re stakeholders.&quot;

Question 3

&quot;I take them to the different museums. I take people around different neighborhoods, just to show the diversity, and the parks.&quot;

JOHN DELLASANTA

Question 1

1. &quot;We&#39;re going to have to raise taxes &mdash; no way around it,&quot;

2. &quot;We have to attract commercial business by giving competitive tax rates to them, compared to surrounding towns.&quot;

3. &quot;Go through, more or less, a line-item audit and see what can be cut.&quot;

Question 2

&quot;Bringing the schools up to par, although that in turn would be a financial goal.&quot;

Question 3

George&#39;s Bakery, American Pie Pizza, and Piccolo&#39;s.

MICHAEL GERMAIN

Question 1

1. &quot;I want to get a better look at the charter school system,&quot; says Germain, who wants to look at why some of the excess money at places like the Abby Kelley Foster School can&#39;t be returned to the city. Germain says this amount could potentially be $6 million.

2. &quot;Turn the parks into a revenue driver. Green Hill should make money, not cost money.&quot;

3. &quot;As soon as possible, get out of the airport business.&quot; Turn our travelers over to those other airports and, &quot;they&#39;ll have to market the hell out of our city.&quot;

Question 2

&quot;The biggest thing we have is a marketing problem. The city has not marketed itself as a place people want to set up shop in [or] have a night out on the town. Once people like the city, they&#39;ll start investing in it again.&quot;

Question 3

The Worcester Art Museum (&quot;A hidden jewel&quot;), Shrewsbury Street, and the Canal District, &quot;where we can show the city is up and coming [with] the neighbors&#39; own economic agenda.&quot;

MICHAEL GRANDONE

Question 1

1. &quot;I would like to propose a flat tax [for] automobile excise. What does it matter what year car you have? Both use the road.&quot;

2. &quot;Something has got to be done with the airport [to] get it back on the tax rolls.&quot;

3. Grandone calls for an in-depth financial study of every department in Worcester.

Question 2

&quot;Change its [the city&#39;s] attitude toward the shotgun approach to development. There&#39;s a lot of development, but not a lot of growth.&quot;

Question 3

The Centrum is one, says Grandone, &quot;but that&#39;s all based on the function.&quot; &quot;Frankly, only the restaurants &mdash; only the arenas or restaurants.&quot;

DENNIS IRISH

Question 1

1. &quot;We&#39;ve got to aggressively roll out the implementation of Section 18 for those who don&#39;t require the waiver.&quot;

2. Irish is hopeful on a telecommunications loophole, but not optimistic, he says. Instead, as a one-time revenue, &quot;I expect that non-recovering revenue [could come] from the sale of school buildings.&quot;

3. Irish says the city must deal with expense reductions, and proposes a potential immediate hiring freeze of non-essential, non-public safety employees, and unpaid furlough and reduced overtime, if absolutely needed.

Question 2

&quot;Make the Worcester public schools the best in the Commonwealth.&quot;

Question 3

&quot;It depends on the nature of the visitor.&quot; Irish cites cultural institutions and festivals, but says that if he was recruiting for business, the three would be Worcester Technical High School, University Park Campus School, and the BioTech complex.

KONSTANTINA LUKES

Question 1

1. As far as this year, &quot;We&#39;re going to have one-time revenues,&quot; says Lukes, specifically citing the medical trust fund.

2. &quot;We&#39;re going to have to look at some of those sacred issues like jobs, like overtime,&quot; says Lukes.

3. And, for next year, the city needs to look at selling assets. &quot;There&#39;s a real issue about certain buildings that are carrying deficits,&quot; says Lukes. &quot;It doesn&#39;t have to be a fire sale.&quot;

Question 2

&quot;There needs to be a change in the political culture and climate,&quot; says Lukes. &quot;Everything is changing socially and economically. Political offices are not an inheritance that gets passed down from friend to friend or family member to family member.&quot;

Question 3

Lukes says the state Vietnam Veterans Memorial at Green Hill Park allows for a &quot;view of the new Tech school, the jewel in our park system and a memorable memorial&quot; all in one.

Lukes, calling Worcester &quot;a city of immigrants,&quot; says she would bring out-of-towners to one of the city&#39;s ethnic festivals, and declares, &quot;probably the best-kept secret is the Art Museum.&quot;

JOHN MAHONEY

Question 1

1. Mahoney calls for transferring the airport to MassPort for cost savings.

2. Selling underperforming buildings like the Worcester Auditorium

3. Taking a long-term look at the budget. &quot;We always hear we cut to the bone. We need to eliminate some positions through attrition and retirement, and pay people a little extra to take on additional responsibilities but look to where we can save.&quot;

Question 2

&quot;To attract new employment, the biggest [challenge] by far. To get [high-quality] jobs into the city.&quot;

Question 3

For food, &quot;I&#39;d bring them to Shrewsbury Street.&quot; If they had kids, up to Green Hill Park and the EcoTarium. &quot;I was up there with my kids today.&quot; &quot;This time of year, a Tornadoes game. I&#39;ve done that &mdash; for kids that age, it&#39;s fun with them.&quot;

WILLIAM McCARTHY

Question 1

1. &quot;I&#39;m going to go through the budget line by line, the same way a family would, looking to find waste and unnecessary costs,&quot; says McCarthy, specifically pointing to consultants&#39; contracts in the School Department.

2. &quot;I also want to see about duplications of services or equipment,&quot; says McCarthy, who mentions the abundance of mowers in various departments as one specific example.

3. &quot;[And] a sunset committee [looking at] which programs are no longer necessary, applicable, or out of date.&quot;

Question 2

&quot;It would definitely be illegal immigration and the sanctuary-city issue.&quot;

1. Perotto points to what he has already supported on the Council floor. &quot;We passed Chapter 32, Section 18. There are individuals who have now qualified to [receive] Medicare. With them and [another group that qualifies], there will be $2 million more we can use for revenues.&quot;

2. Perotto also says he has supported cutting city accounts to save several hundred thousand dollars.

3. And as for the rest of the money, &quot;We&#39;re proposing that will come from the Verizon telecom loophole [being] closed.&quot;

Question 2

&quot;The biggest challenge right now is to have a City Council that can work together and move the city forward. I think the voters of Worcester are going to have to look at who can bring [everyone] together.&quot;

Question 3

The Worcester Art Museum, Higgins Armory and Elm Park.

JOSEPH PETTY

Question 1

1. Petty says that the city must keep looking at the possibility of the Municipal Relief Act or the telecom loophole being closed even though it is &quot;not guaranteed.&quot;

2. Petty calls for looking at further cuts, even though he is not in favor of such cuts.

3. &quot;Worst case scenario &mdash; raise taxes.&quot;

Question 2

&quot;Making people more in tune with government. Making sure government is more representative of the city [in every aspect].&quot; In Petty&#39;s eyes, that means &quot;Make [underrepresented groups] belong.&quot;

Question 3

The Kilby/Gardner/Hammond neighborhood. &quot;That&#39;s revitalization. It should be copied everywhere in the country.&quot;

Parks and Athletics Facilities. &quot;From casual to athletic &mdash; people don&#39;t understand what we have that other cities don&#39;t.&quot;

The neighborhoods. &quot;Different personalities that make Worcester what it is.&quot;

GARY ROSEN

Question 1

1. &quot;Right now, for the present, I&#39;d suggest the city manager look for maybe 10 positions on the school and/or city side that pay about $50,000 each and look if they could be cut,&quot; says Rosen. &quot;I know it would be painful, but if we could live without those ten ....&quot;

2. &quot;I would still turn to the colleges and universities to see if we could get an initial PILOT program&quot; to the tune of $500,000 says Rosen. &quot;I&#39;m going to suggest we come up with a group of citizens who are pro-PILOT and ask them to intervene.&quot;

&quot;I would suggest the start of CitySquare construction. It&#39;s symbolic to people &mdash; symbolic that projects seem to get delayed in Worcester.&quot;

Question 3

The Worcester Technical High school, Green Hill Park and the senior center. &quot;I love the people there, I love the activities,&quot; says Rosen.

GRACE ROSS

Question 1

1. &quot;Implement the parts of the Climate Action Plan that would save money not only for the government, but for the people.&quot;

2. Advocate for the system that will allow people to buy prescription drugs in bulk.

3. &quot;Bulk purchasing of electricity is a good first step. We need to advocate for a municipal electric system.&quot;

Question 2

&quot;It&#39;s about the city government learning how to publicize and facilitate in other ways the cultural and other resources of the city being well known &mdash; inside the city and outside.&quot;

Question 2

Cultural events/festivals, the EcoTarium (&quot;the programs they put on are fabulous&quot;) and the WAG art festival.

FREDERICK RUSHTON

Question 1

1. Hiring freeze

2. Pursuing PILOT

3. As an &quot;absolute last resort,&quot; a $10-$15 tax increase

Question 2

&quot;The biggest challenge is to highlight and make people understand why we&#39;re going to be a strong city in the decade to come. Now we&#39;ve transitioned to this biotech cluster, which is one of the largest in the world,&quot; says Rushton.

Question 3

&quot;Ralph&#39;s (where I met my wife),&quot; the dead-center of the Galleria &quot;to visualize what Worcester is going to be in 5 years,&quot; and the state Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

KATE TOOMEY

Question 1

1, 2 & 3: &quot;Revenue, revenue, revenue.&quot;

Question 2

&quot;Spread the word about what a great place we are to live and work.&quot;

Question 3

Shrewsbury Street, the WPI/Salisbury Street area, and the state Vietnam Veterans Memorial at Green Hill Park.

District 1

JOSEPH CASELLO

Question 1

1. &quot;I would get all the assets that Worcester has that are losing money and either privatize them, or sell them off.&quot;

2. &quot;We&#39;re currently sending three agencies out to all 911 calls. My proposal is to have the Fire Department take over EMS as a revenue-generating entity and combine two public safety administration offices.&quot;

3. &quot;If it&#39;s possible, we need to make the city more small-business friendly.&quot;

Question 2

&quot;Let&#39;s get ourselves an identity. Does Worcester want to be a Providence or Boston? Does it want to be a college town? Whatever it is, let&#39;s get an identity, and work toward it.&quot;

Question 3

&quot;Higgins Armory, the art museum if you&#39;re into that stuff. Off the top of my head, I can&#39;t say why people would come to Worcester, and why they would spend 3 to 4 days. The arts, the culture. But I have two teenage kids, what&#39;s here for them? And that&#39;s the problem. What keeps our young people here?&quot;

SAMUEL ROSARIO

Question 1

1. &quot;Close the airport and mothball it.&quot;

2. &quot;Raise fees associated with the cemetery.&quot;

3. &quot;Without raising taxes, some [people] are going to have to be laid off.&quot;

Question 2

&quot;There is no biggest goal because this Council has failed to set goals. The challenge is leadership in the city standing up and saying &lsquo;I can work [together.]&#39;&quot;

Question 3

The Worcester Art Museum, the arts and cultural festivals (&quot;We have an overwhelming number&quot;), Tom&#39;s Delicatessen/Widoff&#39;s on Water Street.

JOFFREY SMITH

Question 1

1. &quot;Continue growing the tax base through economic development - [that] will bring new businesses.&quot;

2. &quot;I&#39;d like to see a PILOT program implemented.&quot;

3. The Municipal Partnership Act, including closing the telecom loophole.

Question 2

&quot;Improving the quality of life in the city. It means [doing] the little things.&quot;

Question 3

A Worcester Tornadoes game, &quot;one of the many fine restaurants for dinner and the new and improved Shore Park.&quot;

District 5RICHARD BALL

Question 1

1. &quot;The airport needs to maybe be leased over to MassPort.&quot; Additionally, &quot;the land is valuable,&quot; and maybe should be leased or sold off itself.

2. &quot;PILOT needs to be looked at.&quot;

3. The city should look harder at tax delinquencies.

Question 2

&quot;The neighborhoods, and primarily the city pools. It&#39;s a shame it&#39;s been let go for so many years &mdash; finding private corporations that will step up and donate time and money to the city pools.&quot;

Question 3

The DCU Center, Foley Stadium &quot;once it&#39;s done and renovated&quot; and the St. Paddy&#39;s Day Parade, &quot;a premier event.&quot;

&quot;Deserving neighborhoods. There are few cities our size that can boast so many neighborhoods. It&#39;s not just the big stuff, it&#39;s about having a quality of life.&quot;

Question 3

Shrewsbury Street, the colleges, the Worcester Art Museum.

NICHOLAS PLANTE

(Photo not submitted)

Question 1

1. &quot;The city should begin to divest itself of responsibility of properties it doesn&#39;t need to have. The Green Hill Golf Course and the DCU Center should be leased out.&quot;

2. Plante also calls for an implementation of PILOT.

3. Says Plante, &quot;I don&#39;t want to raise people&#39;s taxes, but if core services are [in danger],&quot; it must be done. &quot;No one wants to do it.&quot;

Question 2

&quot;At least from my perspective, it is to refocus the city administration on the neighborhoods. It&#39;s not just about CitySquare. It&#39;s about Webster Square, Newton Square, and the neighborhoods in between. We need to remember the neighborhoods, where the people who pay the bills live.&quot;